I acquired my first ever client as a mortgage broker back in 2008 by packing my old paperboy bag with hand signed letters and walked around my local town in the rain from 7-7 delivering letters to all houses with a for sale sign on. I delivered 1000 letters and got 1 reply and although that person was not in a position to get a mortgage at that time, 9 months later she was and in that 9 months she referred me to 7 people she worked with that I did their mortgage for. Nothing beats hard work
Before this video, I was struggling whether I should take up an investment offer for my temp work recruitment app business. You have convinced me to turn them down and continue on my own and keep knocking on doors and sending emails! Thank you James (Fancy a cup of tea sometime?)
Built our antique business to an annual £400k T/O, while building our commercial property (SIPP) to over £1M with no borrowing. After watching your videos I am now considering growing our portfolio through leverage/ borrowing.
Well bloody hell. This is the first video I’ve watched of yours and you have helped me finally solve the conundrum of taking on private investment. For myself this was a huge subject I’ve been dealing with for a while and you have really opened my eyes on other ways to scale. Much respect to you, for putting this very valuable content out there. Will definitely be watching all the others.
I think it comes down to the type of business you are running, raising capital helps capture market share quickly but again no right or wrong just different pro's and con's depending on business and industry. Service based businesses lend themselves more towards bootstrapping and fast/high growth start ups lend themselves to raising/giving up equity.
People always ask me if I have outside investment and are shocked when I say no. I think for some firms it can really growth but it can be costly to your control over the firm. However for most of the SME these videos are aimed at its probably not a good idea. Keep up the good work james and team. See you in sept when I hope you can assist me with some growth and exit strategies
Your advice is first class, debt scares me of any kind can’t risk it all anymore. Your target audience is on the million pound T/O businesses. Could you do a video on say 100/200k turnover business (cafe/Restaurant) that wants to scale up to say more sites and to best go about it. I’m sure there loads of us out there would really appreciate your wisdom. Thanks
Couple of straight-forward ideas come to mind... 1/ Assuming existing business is profitable, get a loan on location #1 to buy a loc #2 or... 1/ Market your current location to increase sales 2/ Get a loan based on those sales 3/ Acquire an under performing biz (or lease a new spot) and use same tactics to increase sales Rinse & repeat Much easier said than done but it's feasible if you know what youre doing
I wanted to work in partnership with the church I used to attend. The response was you have to set up a charity that the church controls. I said it was too early to set up a legal structure. Their response was make sure that there is nothing that links what you are doing to the church. It was either all theirs or all mine. Being a partner in a social enterprise was out of the question. On the other hand, it was good that I found out I could not trust them before I went any further.
I 100% agree with you James. But I guess one of the reasons some businesses go for private equity is their access to top people, systems, mentors etc. theyve probably done the same thing with a similar business so they have an a speed and experience advantage.
It's never wise to build a business that depends on someone else's connections. If they're all talk no walk you're screwed. Build a business you can hustle to success all by yourself.
Fan-bloody-tastic video James!! 👏🙌 I literally have a completed IM and decks at the moment ready for capital raising to fund inventory and R&D. And didn’t know about the additional charges VC’s bolt on. So thank you! 🙏 Re pre sales - what are your thoughts on Kickstarter and Indigogo for inventory businesses? I look at big brands like Peak Design and Nomatic that seem to run Kickstarts for every new product they launch.
I agree with everything you’ve covered in this video, James. But how do you keep your senior team motivated and engaged with no equity. I’ve seen many groups grow and eventually the leadership team want skin in the game to be fully invested, even if it’s only 0.5-5% pp.
Equity is a poor way to compensate good people. It actually takes rewards out of people's control - if the company is never sold it's valueless, or if there's a down round the value of the equity will go to zero as preferential share holders take their slice. There are much better ways of sharing rewards - revenue shares, profit shares, bonuses linked to objectives. The more direct it is to people's value to the company the better.
@@jerryrandall9251 I disagree. Though like the mechanisms you’ve mentioned. In many of the businesses I’ve worked for, senior management will only be content without ownership for so long. When they get to a certain point in their life they want “in”. Equity is never valueless - ownership means voting rights, it means choice. Yes, upon the sale of the business there is the big cash event, but until then you get a say and you often would get dividends too. A sense of ownership is the biggest motivator in my opinion, which is why so many business owners are choosing to sell into employee ownership trusts at the moment, they’ve never been more popular in the uk.
I’ve been offered investment by a few people .. thought about it .. for about 10 seconds then thought ‘nah this is mine and il do it he hard way’ .. didn’t want to give up control .. in a way it seems like cheating and I don’t want to cheat. It’s tough. But I’m responsible for my destiny and I’ll keep plugging away at it.
100% ownership is like one-man -band it's entertaining , you can give him some spare change but if he does a concert and sells the tickets for the price of the four member band(the investors) you'd be like 'You are taking the mick!' I think sharing the responsibilities is the key to success!
I would raise capital by selling equity to a strategic partnership, otherwise debt is indeed the way to go although I despite getting debt from the bottom of my heart lol
![[DRAGON BALL LEGENDS REVEALS ＆ STUFF] LEGENDS FESTIVAL 2024 Special Edition Part 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mV5bGIswTtQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I acquired my first ever client as a mortgage broker back in 2008 by packing my old paperboy bag with hand signed letters and walked around my local town in the rain from 7-7 delivering letters to all houses with a for sale sign on. I delivered 1000 letters and got 1 reply and although that person was not in a position to get a mortgage at that time, 9 months later she was and in that 9 months she referred me to 7 people she worked with that I did their mortgage for. Nothing beats hard work
Before this video, I was struggling whether I should take up an investment offer for my temp work recruitment app business. You have convinced me to turn them down and continue on my own and keep knocking on doors and sending emails! Thank you James
(Fancy a cup of tea sometime?)
Good for you mate, if you’ve had an investment offer, you must be doing good work 👍🏻
Built our antique business to an annual £400k T/O, while building our commercial property (SIPP) to over £1M with no borrowing. After watching your videos I am now considering growing our portfolio through leverage/ borrowing.
> most people on a Friday night.. 🍺🍺🍺
>meanwhile all the grafters staying in to watch another James Sinclair video
Thanks James, Jacob @ GBWheels
Business owner's p***
As usual, there is lots of value and great ideas. Viewers implement it ASAP. It's a reminder for me.
Well bloody hell. This is the first video I’ve watched of yours and you have helped me finally solve the conundrum of taking on private investment.
For myself this was a huge subject I’ve been dealing with for a while and you have really opened my eyes on other ways to scale.
Much respect to you, for putting this very valuable content out there.
Will definitely be watching all the others.
I think it comes down to the type of business you are running, raising capital helps capture market share quickly but again no right or wrong just different pro's and con's depending on business and industry. Service based businesses lend themselves more towards bootstrapping and fast/high growth start ups lend themselves to raising/giving up equity.
Sawasdee from Thailand. G'DAY and thanks for another great session. Much appreciated.
Love your videos James, very clever how you have setup different businesses that trade with each other.
People always ask me if I have outside investment and are shocked when I say no. I think for some firms it can really growth but it can be costly to your control over the firm.
However for most of the SME these videos are aimed at its probably not a good idea.
Keep up the good work james and team. See you in sept when I hope you can assist me with some growth and exit strategies
Your advice is first class, debt scares me of any kind can’t risk it all anymore.
Your target audience is on the million pound T/O businesses. Could you do a video on say 100/200k turnover business (cafe/Restaurant) that wants to scale up to say more sites and to best go about it. I’m sure there loads of us out there would really appreciate your wisdom. Thanks
Couple of straight-forward ideas come to mind...
1/ Assuming existing business is profitable, get a loan on location #1 to buy a loc #2
or...
1/ Market your current location to increase sales
2/ Get a loan based on those sales
3/ Acquire an under performing biz (or lease a new spot) and use same tactics to increase sales
Rinse & repeat
Much easier said than done but it's feasible if you know what youre doing
I wanted to work in partnership with the church I used to attend. The response was you have to set up a charity that the church controls. I said it was too early to set up a legal structure. Their response was make sure that there is nothing that links what you are doing to the church. It was either all theirs or all mine. Being a partner in a social enterprise was out of the question. On the other hand, it was good that I found out I could not trust them before I went any further.
So good James! Love the new format with the whiteboard - so engaging!
I 100% agree with you James. But I guess one of the reasons some businesses go for private equity is their access to top people, systems, mentors etc. theyve probably done the same thing with a similar business so they have an a speed and experience advantage.
It's never wise to build a business that depends on someone else's connections. If they're all talk no walk you're screwed. Build a business you can hustle to success all by yourself.
Good advice, thank you.
Fan-bloody-tastic video James!! 👏🙌
I literally have a completed IM and decks at the moment ready for capital raising to fund inventory and R&D. And didn’t know about the additional charges VC’s bolt on. So thank you! 🙏
Re pre sales - what are your thoughts on Kickstarter and Indigogo for inventory businesses?
I look at big brands like Peak Design and Nomatic that seem to run Kickstarts for every new product they launch.
My terms are payment upon order, but I have 45 day terms with my suppliers.
Makes things very easy.
I agree with everything you’ve covered in this video, James. But how do you keep your senior team motivated and engaged with no equity. I’ve seen many groups grow and eventually the leadership team want skin in the game to be fully invested, even if it’s only 0.5-5% pp.
Equity is a poor way to compensate good people. It actually takes rewards out of people's control - if the company is never sold it's valueless, or if there's a down round the value of the equity will go to zero as preferential share holders take their slice.
There are much better ways of sharing rewards - revenue shares, profit shares, bonuses linked to objectives. The more direct it is to people's value to the company the better.
@@jerryrandall9251 I disagree. Though like the mechanisms you’ve mentioned. In many of the businesses I’ve worked for, senior management will only be content without ownership for so long. When they get to a certain point in their life they want “in”. Equity is never valueless - ownership means voting rights, it means choice. Yes, upon the sale of the business there is the big cash event, but until then you get a say and you often would get dividends too. A sense of ownership is the biggest motivator in my opinion, which is why so many business owners are choosing to sell into employee ownership trusts at the moment, they’ve never been more popular in the uk.
I’ve been offered investment by a few people .. thought about it .. for about 10 seconds then thought ‘nah this is mine and il do it he hard way’ .. didn’t want to give up control .. in a way it seems like cheating and I don’t want to cheat. It’s tough. But I’m responsible for my destiny and I’ll keep plugging away at it.
Good man, this the type of mindset that lights fire in people
Really excellent content, thank you.
Are you please able to recommend any business software that can track my 3 KPI's?
100% ownership is like one-man -band it's entertaining , you can give him some spare change but if he does a concert and sells the tickets for the price of the four member band(the investors) you'd be like 'You are taking the mick!'
I think sharing the responsibilities is the key to success!
I feel Felix Dennis nodding at this video (just finished that book on James' recommendation) 😀
My first thought was Felix.
Great video
I would raise capital by selling equity to a strategic partnership, otherwise debt is indeed the way to go although I despite getting debt from the bottom of my heart lol
Now James get's bombarded with a lifetime supply of Yorkshire Gold Tea 🤣🤣🤣
Here’s hoping!
Great content